Set off some fireworks, don a costume, prepare the feast. From revisiting the past to welcoming new beginnings, celebrations are ingrained in every culture. Some remain fixed in traditions centuries-old, while others shift as they spread to new audiences and environments. But the biggest jamborees aren’t spontaneous; it takes serious [...]

From submarine fiber to towering transmitters, technology has laid the piping for us to connect across vast distances. And more nodes are in more hands: there are nine mobile subscriptions for every 10 people. But how does this affect how we communicate?

Last year, mass demonstrations erupted throughout every inhabited continent. Each resisted a different power—corrupt governments, unethical corporations, or wealthy citizens. But they all represented a new kind of resistance that leveraged global networks and novel tools. At times, the protests seemed so connected that they were inseparable. Occupy organizers cited the Arab Spring as an inspiration, and on October 15, [...]

Student Design Competition In The Electronic Afterlife, we revealed the impact of electronic waste: 20–50 tonnes each year flow through a global supply chain, mostly ending in landfills and informal recycling villages. As we embed electronics in more of our products, how can designers keep the product lifetime in mind? [...]

Consider an object you use everyday. Where was it born? The more advanced it is, the more likely its components were sourced from more places all over the world. Your laptop is a sort of third culture kid. Globalization has linked distant mines, factories, and ports to each other and [...]

The number of cars on the road is exploding, but the number of cars in the garage is even higher. That’s why car sharing systems like Getaround are using peer-to-peer networking to use idle cars more efficiently. Getaround’s website and app match drivers with renters, making a wide variety of vehicles available in all areas—not just dense [...]

Millions of tonnes of electronics are disposed each year, triggering a chain of devastating effects. Most units end up in landfills, where hazardous components seep into groundwater. Of the units recycled, most are shipped to less regulated emerging markets—often labeled as donations—where their valuable components are extracted with little regard for [...]